 Venue |
The Playhouse
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| Other Names
|
The First Playhouse
|
| Address |
217 Castlereagh Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
|
| First Date |
1917 |
| Last Date |
December 1922 |
| Notes
| The Currency Companion to the Theatre incorrectly indicates that the final performance was in January 1921 but in fact the theatre was in use until December 1922. |
| Related Venues |
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| Map |
|
| Latitude | Longitude |
-33.875422 | 151.208897 |
| Events |
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Three Short Plays, 4 December 1922
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The Bracelet, 4 December 1922
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For Love of Appin, 4 December 1922
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The Good Losers, 4 December 1922
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Der Grosser Yid (The Great Jew), 2 December 1922
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Karmo, 17 June 1922
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The Importance of Being Earnest, 23 May 1922
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Secondary Considerations, 10 December 1921
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The Foundations, 29 October 1921
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The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, 29 October 1921
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The Lost Silk Hat, 11 June 1921
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Chains, 11 June 1921
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Chains and The Lost Silk Hat, 11 June 1921
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The Voysey Inheritance, 7 April 1921
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Aussie Smart Set Diggers, 27 December 1920
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Oh Kitty, 27 November 1920
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An Irish Christmas, 2 October 1920
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The Rose of Killarney, 4 September 1920
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Henry V, 1 September 1920
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The Great McEwan, 3 July 1920
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Lecture and Lantern Slides - H. K. Eustace, 5 June 1920
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The Story of Zeebrugge and Ostend - Lieutenant Commander Rowland Bourke, 27 May 1920
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The Rat, 24 May 1920
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Mademoiselle Mimi, 27 March 1920
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Pierrot Pie, 3 August 1918
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The Frivolities, 29 June 1918
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The Scarlet Troubadours, 4 May 1918
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Pierrotland, 16 March 1918
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Sydney James and His Royal Strollers, 19 January 1918
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The Rajah of Shivapore, 15 December 1917
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Quinney's, 3 November 1917
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The New Sin, 29 September 1917
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|
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Three Short Plays, 4 December 1922
-
For Love of Appin, 4 December 1922
-
The Good Losers, 4 December 1922
-
The Bracelet, 4 December 1922
-
Karmo, 17 June 1922
-
Secondary Considerations, 10 December 1921
-
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, 29 October 1921
-
The Foundations, 29 October 1921
-
Chains and The Lost Silk Hat, 11 June 1921
-
The Lost Silk Hat, 11 June 1921
-
Chains, 11 June 1921
-
The Voysey Inheritance, 7 April 1921
-
Aussie Smart Set Diggers, 27 December 1920
-
The Rose of Killarney, 4 September 1920
-
Quinney's, 3 November 1917
-
Three Short Plays, 4 December 1922
-
For Love of Appin, 4 December 1922
-
The Good Losers, 4 December 1922
-
The Bracelet, 4 December 1922
-
The Foundations, 29 October 1921
-
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, 29 October 1921
-
The Lost Silk Hat, 11 June 1921
-
Chains and The Lost Silk Hat, 11 June 1921
-
Chains, 11 June 1921
-
The Voysey Inheritance, 7 April 1921
|
|
-
The Good Losers, 4 December 1922
-
The Bracelet, 4 December 1922
-
Three Short Plays, 4 December 1922
-
For Love of Appin, 4 December 1922
-
Secondary Considerations, 10 December 1921
-
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, 29 October 1921
-
The Foundations, 29 October 1921
-
Chains, 11 June 1921
-
The Lost Silk Hat, 11 June 1921
-
The Voysey Inheritance, 7 April 1921
David Henry Souter
- Costume Designer, Librettist, Playwright
Frederick Ward
- Actor, Director, Playwright
Karmo
- Entrepreneur, Illusionist
|
| Resources |
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Article: "The Playhouse" To Go, Everyones, 3, 149, 10 January 1923, 36
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Theatre in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, opened 29 April 1886 as Royal Foresters' Hall, seating 906. Architects: Ellis and Slatyer. Renamed Royal Standard Theatre 8 May 1886. Renamed Empire Theatre 16 March 1901; Standard Theatre 24 November 1906; Little Theatre 22 March 1913; Playhouse 1917. Demolished c.1923.
After nearly 30 years of melodrama, vaudeville, boxing, seances and two-up games, this modest hall-cum-theatre became significant in 1913, when Hugh Buckler and his wife Violet Paget made it the home of their Little Theatre. This company was the first in Sydney to specialise in literary drama, following the lead of the Royal Court Theatre in London and the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The theatre began as a hall in a building on the western side of Castlereagh Street, south of Bathurst Street. It was erected by the Ancient Order of Foresters, a lodge and friendly society. There was a lodge room behind the dress circle and there were more rooms above the auditorium. According to the NSW Government Architect, the hall was 29.2 metres long by 11 metres wide. The stage was the same width but only 7.6 metres feet deep with a 6.1 metre-wide proscenium opening. The original lessee, Frank Smith, had a slight slope built into the floor. He also had 308 iron tip-up chairs, upholstered in crimson velvet, put into the front stalls and 220 into the dress circle. The rear stalls, occupying less than half of the floor, were 442 hard tip-up seats.
Nine days after the hall opened it was renamed the Royal Standard Theatre for the first stage performance - Alfred Dampier's production of The Phantom Ship, based on the legend of Vanderdecken, the Flying Dutchman. The premiere of For the Term of His Natural Life by Dampier and Thomas Somers followed on 5 June 1886.
In 1901 Fullers' from New Zealand leased the theatre, renovated it and reopened it as the Empire Theatre. Their Empire Minstrel and Variety Company played there for nearly a year. From November 1906 it was called the Standard Theatre and occupied by Harry Clay's Vaudeville Company. In 1913 the theatre, renovated, redecorated and re-seated, reopened as the Little Theatre, 'the Home of High-Class Comedy'. Gone was the 'mouldy, mediocre unloveliness' of the auditorium, said the management, which had installed a tea and coffee lounge beneath the stage so that patrons could exchange ideas after matinee performances. A photograph of the Little Theatre in 1913 corresponds to a description published in 1886 - a three-storey building surmounted by the largest carved stone pediment in Sydney. This displayed rich foliage and the arms of the Foresters' lodge.
During the First World War the lease passed from Hugh Buckler to Sid James, who again renovated the theatre and reopened it as the Playhouse on 29 September 1917, with The New Sin, a play by Basil Macdonald Hastings. Later J. and N. Tait Ltd. took over the Playhouse. It seems to have ended its days with the final performance of the Aussie Smart Set Diggers on 15 January 1921.
Article: Ross Thorne, Royal Standard Theatre, Companion To Theatre In Australia, 1995, 511
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Article: [Sydney Repertory Theatre], Freeman's Journal, 21 December 1922, 28
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Photograph: E G Shaw, 'The Little Theatre', also known as 'The Play House', and Royal Standard Theatre, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, 1921
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Websites / Online media: Ailsa McPherson, Royal Standard Theatre, Dictionary of Sydney
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Websites / Online media: Sydney Architecture - Royal Standard aka Empire / Clay’s Standard / Little Theatre and The Playhouse, Sydney Architecture
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| Venue Identifier |
10410 |
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